What Is A Good Upload Speed For World Of Warcraft?

How Much Speed Practice I Need for Online Gaming?

Mar 18, 2022 Share
Make Guides, Gaming, Cyberspace Speed Guides

You don't need a lot of speed to play games online. It's not a bandwidth-intensive activity, so all you need is a 5 Mbps connectedness or faster.

But keep in mind that no amount of speed is going to cease your game from lagging if your latency ranges into hundreds of milliseconds. There's a lot more to having a good gaming experience online than signing upward for the fastest internet plan on the planet.

Nosotros've boiled down the well-nigh important points of cyberspace speed for gaming online, so you know exactly what kind of connectedness you need to go the most out of your online gameplay.

Looking for the all-time net provider for gaming?

Verizon Fios has the lowest latency in our tests. If it's not in your area, see if one of our other all-time internet providers for gaming is.

Download speed and upload speed

Playing games like Halo Infinite and Fortnite online doesn't require a lot of bandwidth. Unlike an online video—which is streamed over the net to your device—the graphics fleck in your estimator, game console, or mobile device renders (draws) the virtual globe locally and displays information technology on your screen. In fact, very picayune information passes between the gaming server and the gamer. Both sides exchange the following data:

Keyboard input
Mouse input
Controller input
Actor location (you and everyone else)
The electric current world state
Player advice
Server notifications (like in-game announcements)

Out of the items on the in a higher place list, player location can innovate slowdowns, especially in massively multiplayer online (MMO) games. These games can have more than existent on-screen players than the typical online gaming scenario, causing frame rate drops and "teleporting" players.

Overall, many modern games with high-definition graphics need a download speed of at least 3 Mbps to play online.^1,2,three

Upload speed plays an important office too

Since games are interactive, y'all also have to consider the speed at which information from your computer or console travels to a remote server. Even a poor connection tin ordinarily meet the necessary speeds, which is why upload speed frequently takes a backseat to more important factors.

The typical game with high-definition graphics needs an upload speed of at least ane–two Mbps.^1,2,3

Do you need a connexion with better upload speeds?

Nosotros prefer fiber over other internet connections considering information technology has symmetrical speeds. Enter your goose egg code to find out which options are available to you.

Minimum speed requirements across game platforms

* Based on suggestions made by Bungie for Destiny two on PC. ¹⁰

As long as your internet connectedness meets these requirements, you lot can play games online. Yet, if y'all desire to have a consistent online experience, we suggest having a slightly better connection.

Our speed recommendations for playing games online

Since the actual speed requirements are so depression, games and game systems oft don't give specific recommendations. Instead, they simply crave a "broadband internet connection."

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) defines a broadband connection every bit having a download speed of 25 Mbps and an upload speed of iii Mbps—more than enough for you to accept several consoles playing online simultaneously.^five

If you're non certain y'all take a broadband connection, you can accept a speed test to make certain. Unfortunately, speed requirements don't bear on on the critical question for playing games online: latency.

High latency is your worst enemy

Latency is the corporeality of time a data packet uses to make its trip to a remote server and back. Picture show a racquetball bouncing off a wall—how long does that brawl accept to come back to you?

The ping utility answers this question past throwing a ball of data at a specific destination and recording the entire trip'due south elapsing—in other words, information technology pings the server. Latency is also referred to as "ping charge per unit."

And so, if your latency gets too high when you're playing a game online, you outset to experience lag.

For example, you movement a mouse and your game reports that move to a remote server. The server acknowledges the movement and sends a response showing your movements forth with all the other player movements. Your game renders the response, but because your latency is loftier, your movement appears delayed compared to the other players.

Factors that touch latency

At that place are a number of factors that impact latency. These include the following:

The physical distance between you and the server

Games that support co-op and multiplayer use regional servers because geolocation does matter, even if a server is just a few states away.

Why? Because y our signal moves through multiple "hops" as it travels betwixt you and the server. The more than hops your point must traverse, the longer its journey takes—which translates to a higher latency. Traffic congestion between you and the remote server can also crusade a slowdown, likewise, delaying your controller input.

Your cyberspace connection type

Sure types of internet connections inherently have more than latency than others.

For example, satellite internet has the highest latency because it's a wireless manual that travels int o space and back to reach a remote server. Insulated cable connections have lower latency than uninsulated telephone lines, while fiber optic cables take lower latency than both.

Proceed in listen that the speed at which your signals travel back and forth is different from your download speed or bandwidth. A movie will download at a slower rate over a 5 Mbps DSL connection than it will over a l Mbps satellite connection.

When playing games online, however, the DSL connexion would be much more responsive than satellite considering the gaming data doesn't launch into space and back. The high latency of the satellite connexion would cause so much lag that most fast-paced games wouldn't even be playable online.

The best internet connections for gaming online

A fiber-to-the-home (or edifice) internet plan from a provider like AT&T, Google Fiber, or Verizon Fios is the best connectedness for playing games online. Cable cyberspace comes in at a close second, with some 5G networks also providing stable connections with depression latency. Other wired connections mostly innovate more than latency but are notwithstanding better for gaming than wireless connections.

Consistent and reliable latency information is hard to gather. The FCC was a source for some of the most comprehensive studies of internet latency. However, the agency has since stopped including latency in its annual broadband reports, and so newer technologies like 5G and home 4G LTE are non included.

Although 5G is withal an emerging wireless technology —specially its gigabit millimeter-wave connections— it promises to have lower latency than any other wireless connexion . 4G and 4G LTE connections mostly have much more than lag than wired connections just are capable of reaching our recommended latency of beneath 100 ms.

How to reduce lag

If your latency is high enough that you lot're starting to experience lag when playing games online , you can take a few steps to help reduce your latency and keep your game running smoothly.

Don't use Wi-Fi if yous can

Wireless connections, even fast ones, volition add a bit more delay to your connexion. Wi-Fi is user-friendly, simply it adds an additional translation pace between your gaming devices and your internet connexion. Plus, you'll see a delay if there are more wireless devices connected to your router than it tin can handle at once.

To bypass this delay, connect your gaming device to your router using an Ethernet cablevision. You won't see the latencies associated with Wi-Fi or the dramatic speed fluctuations, making your connection that much more responsive.

If you must utilise Wi-Fi, connect your wireless device to the 5 GHz ring. It has a shorter range than a ii.4 GHz connection merely is faster and less congested, resulting in reduced latency. Stay close to your Wi-Fi router, as well—within l anxiety or then, depending on the router—and continue a clear line of sight to the router with equally few obstructions as possible for a meliorate connection.

With the Nintendo Switch, we recommend playing it docked and using a USB-based Ethernet adapter to connect it to your network. The Nintendo-approved Dual USB Playstand works with the Switch and Switch Light.

You can employ a similar adapter on a notebook or desktop that doesn't take an Ethernet port.

Power cycle network devices

Power cycling your router and modem can sometimes ameliorate their performance. Since very small differences in latency can make a big touch on on the amount of lag you lot feel in a game, it's worth restarting your equipment.

To power cycle, unplug your modem or wireless gateway, await 30 seconds, and plug it back in. Practice the same with a standalone router when your modem comes back online.

Update drivers and firmware

Hardware manufacturers release updates to improve device performance. Updates typically include security fixes, code optimizations, improved device compatibility, and increased stability. Yous should always go on your firmware and drivers current to forbid issues that can slam the brakes on your internet connection. Be sure to practice the post-obit:

Update your computer's drivers and operating organization, especially the graphics drivers
Update your console's operating arrangement
Update the firmware for all controllers and peripherals
Update your router's firmware

Turn off unnecessary applications and devices

If your connection even so struggles while playing games online, try to reduce the amount of traffic on your habitation network. Make sure that someone isn't streaming 4K video in another room when y'all're about to start a new match.

You lot can also forbid other devices from bogging down the network by turning off smart devices and pausing software and Bone updates while you play—just think to reactivate everything when you're done.

Employ the closest server

Distance is one of the biggest factors in latency. Even if every device on your connection is running at peak efficiency, it still takes time for a point to travel to a remote location and back.

Games almost always connect you to the nearest server, merely if y'all're experiencing unexplained latency issues, double-check that you're not connecting to the European server when you lot're playing in Northward America. You may need to switch servers if the current one is experiencing issues.

Utilize port forwarding

Online gaming networks similar Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network suggest that gamers assign "static" IP addresses to their consoles and route incoming and outgoing traffic to those addresses. While routers typically assign dynamic addresses to your devices which change over time, a static address never changes.

When yous assign a static IP address, y'all can tell the router to forward data to that address through specific ports. A port is merely a "dock" that handles a specific type of "ship" (data) arriving to and leaving from your router. Gaming networks typically send and receive internet information through specific ports.

To create a static IP address and open ports to that address, you must brand the changes in your router or wireless gateway. Port forwarding works with whatever device—not simply gaming consoles.

Use Quality of Service (QoS) controls if bachelor

You may exist able to allocate more bandwidth to your gaming devices past making a few adjustments in your router or wireless gateway. The router volition consider this traffic as "disquisitional" and will prioritize your gaming data over other applications, similar Netflix and YouTube.

On some routers, y'all tin can merely found one specific bandwidth amount and list the devices that tin apply that bandwidth. In that location are no means to prioritize specific traffic, like gaming or streaming.

Avoid summit hours

You may run into a slowdown during peak hours when anybody in your home accesses the internet at the same time. Plus, a router is limited to how many wireless devices it can handle simultaneously before slowdowns occur. This heavy load is why we e'er suggest using a router with four or more streams to ameliorate handle busy homes.

Peak hours are as well associated with cable internet, but information technology's no longer the case now that providers like Spectrum and Xfinity utilize fiber every bit their network courage. Rural areas that are however 100% cable may all the same feel peak hr slowdowns, yet.

We propose that you lot play games subsequently in the evening, or upgrade your router if it has less than four streams.

Check your connections

A bad Ethernet cable tin lead to gaming lag woes, whether it's the cablevision connecting your router to your modem or fiber ONT, or the one tethering your reckoner to the network. Also, check your modem's internet connection, as a loose cable will cause lag-inducing instability.

Upgrade your internet

If you've tried all these steps and are still experiencing more lag than you can tolerate, you lot may demand to upgrade to a better internet connection.

Desire to see what providers are bachelor in your surface area? Enter your zip lawmaking below.

Downloads can also strain your connection

Playing your games online will push the limits of your internet connection more than than any other online activeness, but information technology'due south not the only way that games tin can put a strain on your connection.

Many modern games take upwards a lot of storage space on your computer or console . This means that downloading games from an online distributor like Steam or the Microsoft Store can take a long time. Information technology can also eat through monthly data caps in no time apartment.

Updates tin be information hogs also. For example, Bethesda'southward Steel Reign update for Fallout 76 weighs a hefty 15.9 GB when downloaded from the Microsoft Store, and vii.1 GB when downloaded from Steam. ⁸ Bethesda's long-awaited Doom Eternal Update 6 patch calculation ray tracing to the visuals is around 4 GB on Steam.

Latency should still exist your number-one priority in choosing an net plan for playing games online , only choosing a programme with unlimited data will save you lot a lot of headaches. Fast download speeds as well help out with those big new games. After all, having extremely long download times on Day One isn't much fun.

Livestreaming

Your internet needs become a chip more complicated if yous stream your games on Twitch or YouTube. Streaming has all the normal requirements for a low-latency connection for playing games online, plus the additional upload speed you need to go along a steady bitrate on your livestream.

For more information on what to wait for in an internet connectedness for livestreaming, check out our guide to net speed for alive video game streaming. We as well provide a guide on how to stream on Twitch that offers all the data you need.

Game streaming

Cloud gaming services like Stadia and PlayStation Now store and run their games in a virtual machine you stream from their servers. Rather than download and run these games locally on your computer, console, or mobile device, you stream them from the cloud. This eliminates whatever hardware bottlenecks that could forbid a game from running at its highest quality on your device.

That said, you don't need a $iv,000 desktop or the latest panel to play these games. Instead, you lot just need a browser or an app, depending on the platform. For case, you lot can stream Stadia on a low-end Chromebook or a Chromecast—Google'southward servers exercise all the heavy rendering, non your devices.

The downside to game streaming is that games are rendered on the server then streamed across the cyberspace in Full HD or 4K resolutions. And considering these experiences are interactive and non passive (like Netflix and Hulu), input latency tin be an issue.

To play these services without any major issues, you demand a skilful internet connection to back up game streaming. Here are the internet speed requirements for the four major gaming streaming services:

Note that Microsoft suggests an upload speed of at least 4.five Mbps for Xbox Remote Play. An upload speed of 9 Mbps or more than is platonic.⁹

What about Steam Remote Play?

Valve Software suggests speeds just in regards to Steam Remote Play Together. This service allows one Steam gamer to run a purchased multiplayer game locally on a PC and then invite four or more Steam friends to play remotely. It's optimized to stream games to four other players at 1080p and sixty frames per second, so Valve suggests using a connection of ten–30 Mbps at the least.

This speed proffer probably too applies to Remote Play Together+Anywhere, which still streams the multiplayer game from a PC, only now the game owner is streaming remotely also. Meanwhile, Remote Play Anywhere streams to 1 client only, then the necessary cyberspace speeds shouldn't demand to go beyond 10 Mbps.

Online games vs. playing games online

We spend a lot of fourth dimension discussing games you can play online, which are games that target the single-player feel offset and include multiplayer components. Games that fall under the "play games online" umbrella would include Doom Eternal , Pokemon Sword and Shield , Destiny 2 , and Halo Infinite . They can experience latency when played in co-op and multiplayer modes, especially when more than than a few players are moving on the screen.

Online games, even so, tin can be highly susceptible to latency. These include The Elder Scrolls Online , World of Warcraft , and similar MMOs. The player count is typically high, which means both the server and the customer (your game) must go on track of every role player. This can be a huge processing load fifty-fifty if yous have the best connection available. Your frame rate may drop and your input may experience irksome.

The bottom line: keep your latency low

If gaming online is your primary concern when choosing an internet plan, choice the one that gives you the lowest latency, like Verizon Fios. But keep in mind that other online activities like downloading games, livestreaming, or cloud gaming (not to mention things like watching video, working online, or doing schoolwork) have their ain requirements that yous should consider.

Sources

Nintendo Customer Support, "Troubleshooting Slow Download and Upload Speeds," Accessed December 3, 2020.
Xbox Back up, "Troubleshoot your network connectedness speed," Accessed December 4, 2020.
PlayStation Help & Support, "PS4 Error Code NP-37667-9," Accessed December 4, 2020.
PlayStation Help & Support, "PS4 Error Code NP-38497-1," Accessed Dec four, 2020.
Federal Communications Commission, "2015 Broadband Progress Report," February iv, 2015. Accessed Dec iv, 2020.
Stadia Help, "Bandwidth, data usage, and stream quality," Accessed December 5, 2020.
Federal Communications Commission, "Seventh Measuring Broadband America Fixed Broadband Report: Appendix F-1," May 20, 2011, Accessed December xvi, 2020.
Bethesda, " Fallout 76 Update Notes ," July 7, 2021. Accessed July thirteen, 2021.
Microsoft, "Understanding Your Remote Play Setup Test Results," Accessed December 22, 2021.
Bungie, "Network Setup: Wifi vs. Wired Connections," Accessed Dec 22, 2021.

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Writer - Peter Christiansen

Peter Christiansen writes about satellite net, rural connectivity, livestreaming, and parental controls for HighSpeedInternet.com. Peter holds a PhD in communication from the University of Utah and has been working in tech for over 15 years equally a computer programmer, game developer, filmmaker, and writer. His writing has been praised by outlets like Wired, Digital Humanities Now, and the New Statesman.

Editor - Cara Haynes

Cara Haynes has been editing and writing in the digital space for 7 years, and she'south edited all things internet for HighSpeedInternet.com for five years. She graduated with a BA in English and a pocket-size in editing from Brigham Young University. When she's non editing, she makes tech accessible through her freelance writing for brands similar Pluralsight. She believes no one should feel lost in internet land and that a adept net connection significantly extends your life bridge.